596 



Report to H.R.H, the President 



advantages quite as great, if not greater, for it would save him 

 nearly one half of the entire labour now bestowed on his plough- 

 ing ; but to prove this it will be unavoidable to enter somewhat 

 into the detail of actual farming. Indeed our implements must of 

 course be judged not merely by their power of effecting a certain 

 object, but by the usefulness of that object when it has been effected. 

 Thus Kilby's paring plough will peel off the turf l"rom a bowling- 

 green as even as a web of cocoanut matting, yet if that were all, 

 it might serve the gardener, but would not serve the farmer. It 

 does, however, serve the farmer, because it gives one mode of 

 accomplishing a most valuable new process, the autumnal clean- 

 ing of wheat stubbles. 



In order to prove this great saving, the ordinary course of 

 ploughing on a common stock farm, according to the usual four- 

 course system, must be shortly stated. 



After the wheat crop, the land, being full of running couch, is 

 ploughed in the winter, and ploughed again, with other operations, 

 thrice more in the spring, until it appears to be clean, when the 

 turnips are sown. In the next spring it is ploughed by many 

 good farmers twice for barley ; in order that the sheep-droppings 

 may be well mixed with the soil, and so the growth of the barley 

 be regular. The third crop, clover, being sown with the barley 

 gives a rest to the teams until it is broken up with one ploughing, 

 and the fourth crop, the wheat crop, is sown. The account will 

 stand thus : — 



Ploughings, 



Root CrOD . . . . . .4 



Barley * 2 



Clover 0 



Wheat ....... 1 



7 



Now it has been found that if immediately after harvest the 

 wheat land be not ploughed, but pared at a depth of 2 inches 

 only, the couch, the cause of so much labour, is intercepted before 

 it has penetrated the ground, and all that future toil becomes 

 needless. This work is done with the scarifier. The saving of 

 labour is easily calculated, if we only compare the breadth of the 

 scarifier, whichever it be, for there are many of them, with the 

 breadth of the plough. Thus our ploughs make a furrow nearly 

 9 inches wide, and are drawn by two horses. Coleman's scarifier, 

 one of the best for hard ground, is 5 feet wide (7 times as wide), 

 and is drawn by six horses. These three pair, therefore, will 

 cover as much ground as seven pair at plough, and the labour, 

 accordingly, would not be half of one ploughing. There must after- 

 wards be one good ploughing given to lay up the land for the 

 mellowing effect of the winter's frost. In the spring the land can 



